swb: A strong regional partnership
The swb group of companies has offices in Bremen and Bremerhaven and strengthens the EWE Group's presence in northern Germany. The greatest added value from swb comes from its many years of experience in conventional power generation.
Heritage and experience with energy services going back more than 150 years form the foundations on which swb provides services for modern life in northern Germany and in the cities of Bremen and Bremerhaven.
Electricity business area
In the Electricity business area swb covers the entire value chain, from generation through to distribution to private, commercial and industrial customers. Bremen's first power plant went into operation back in 1893. Today, swb operates power generation facilities at three sites in the Bremen metropolitan area, with a total installed capacity of over 1,000 megawatts. Recognising that fossil energy resources are finite and global climate protection goals are ambitious, swb has developed a growth business area: energy generation from waste. This entails the operation of the waste incineration power plant in Bremen and what is known as a medium-calorific power plant. As part of its commitment to protecting the environment and the climate, swb is increasingly utilising electricity from renewable sources – including in its own power generation. In total, swb supplies some 400,000 households and businesses in Bremen and Bremerhaven with electricity.
Natural gas business area
More and more swb customers are using natural gas for heating, cooking and producing hot water. For this reason, swb's natural gas network in Bremen and Bremerhaven is growing continuously and now consists of around 3,000 kilometres of pipeline. swb uses this network to supply more than 160,000 households and businesses in the region with natural gas.
Drinking water business area
The drinking water supplied by swb comes exclusively from ground water sources. Every year swb extracts 15 million cubic metres of ground water from its own wells at seven sites in the federal state of Bremen. Additional requirements are covered by ground water sources in Lower Saxony. Every day 663,000 residents of Bremen and Bremerhaven can depend on their drinking water from swb.
Heat business area
In addition to generating heat in its combined heat and power plants, swb also produces heat decentrally in smaller heating plants. It is a simple, secure and environmentally friendly way of heating rooms and water for homes and provides large customers like hospitals and industrial businesses with process heat and cooling. In Bremen and Bremerhaven swb sells over one billion kilowatt hours of heat every year.
Waste disposal business area
In order to ensure efficient and sustainable waste disposal swb has created a waste-to-energy strategy. This entails the integration of waste disposal and energy generation. In the waste incineration power plant the energy produced by incinerating waste is converted into electricity, district heating and cooling. This produces sufficient supplies for several institutions in Bremen and an entire residential area. In addition, swb operates a medium-calorific power plant. Altogether, swb provides an appropriate and environmentally sound way of disposing of 850,000 tonnes of waste a year.
swb holds a stake in one of Germany's first privatised local wastewater treatment companies: hanseWasser in Bremen. Every day hanseWasser purifies up to 300,000 cubic metres of sewage and rain water in two large sewage works. The company also treats effluent sludge from some 50 local councils and advises industrial customers on operating wastewater treatment plants.
Technical services business area
The Technical Services business area combines swb's expertise gained as an operator of power plants and networks over many decades. Technical services are a nationwide growth area for swb. A number of customised energy services have been developed as part of this strategic focus, such as contracting, operating industrial networks and networks for wide-area supply as well as street lighting.
Furthermore, swb is active in the field of renewable energies – planning, financing, building and operating biogas plants including biogas processing and biogas feed-in facilities. One biogas plant has been completed in Weyhe and has provided heat and electricity from a CHP plant since May 2010. Another is set to begin operations in Halle/Westfalia in 2010 and will feed in bio natural gas to the gas transmission network. A third facility is being planned in Schwarme. Under the brand name inhome swb also sells and installs boilers and solar power equipment for domestic customers.